Built for the companies that can't afford to get compliance wrong

Probably not. The founders who say "we'll deal with compliance later" are usually the same ones calling us six months before a Series A in a mild panic. Starting early isn't about being overly cautious. It's about not having to rebuild your entire infrastructure right when you're also trying to close your biggest deal ever. You don't need to be fully certified at seed stage, but you should know what's coming and have a plan.

Not quite, and mixing them up is one of the most expensive mistakes startups make. Security is what you actually do to protect your systems and data. Compliance is how you prove it to someone who doesn't work at your company. You need both. Plenty of companies are genuinely secure but fail audits because they never wrote anything down. We help you build the real thing and document it in a way that holds up under scrutiny.

We start with a readiness assessment: an honest look at where you are versus where you need to be. No fluff, no 80-page reports you'll never read. From there, we build a roadmap with real milestones, work alongside your team to close the gaps (policies, vendor reviews, access controls, the whole thing), and get you to the audit ready to pass. Think of us as your compliance co-founder, not a vendor you email once a month.

No. Every engagement is led by senior practitioners. We're talking CISSPs with 10-plus years of experience and real audit track records, not analysts running playbooks they didn't write. We've taken 40-plus companies through this process and helped unlock more than $50M in deals that were stalled on compliance. That's who picks up the phone when you call.

We publish our prices. Flat fees, no hourly billing, no "scope creep" that conveniently triples your invoice. Monthly programs run $2,000 (Foundation), $5,000 (Growth), $9,000 (Peak), and $12,500 (Evolution), and a standalone full-scope gap assessment starts at $5,500. The exact number depends on the framework and where you're starting from, but you'll know the number before you sign anything.

We prep you. The audit itself has to be done by an independent third party (a CPA firm for SOC 2, an accredited certification body for ISO 27001). That's not a limitation, it's how these things are designed. What we do is get you audit-ready, manage the relationship with your auditor, handle evidence collection, and fix anything that comes up before it becomes a finding.

Only if you want us to. Most of our clients keep us on retainer because compliance doesn't end when the audit does. Frameworks renew annually, regulations change, your product evolves. We offer ongoing support for monitoring, policy updates, and year-over-year audit prep.

Book a free 30-minute call. We'll ask about your situation, tell you what we'd actually recommend, and give you a straight answer on timeline and cost. No sales deck, no follow-up sequence if you decide it's not the right time.

SOC 2 isn't a certification — it's an independent attestation report from a CPA firm that audits how you protect customer data across five areas: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Most enterprise companies won't even finish a security review without it.

Type I says your controls are designed correctly as of a specific date. Type II says your controls have actually been working over a period of time (usually 6 to 12 months). Enterprise customers almost always want Type II. Type I is useful as a stepping stone when you're in a crunch and need something to show a prospect while your observation period is running.

ISO 27001 is the internationally recognized information security management standard. You'll usually hear about it when you're selling into Europe, financial services, or large enterprises that specifically request it over SOC 2. It's more rigorous than SOC 2 and requires building a formal Information Security Management System.

No. We meet you wherever you are. Some clients come in fully set up on Vanta. Some are running everything in a Google Sheet. We've seen it all, and we'll help you get the most out of whatever you're already using.

All of them. Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto, Hyperproof, Tugboat Logic, Laika, Strike Graph, and yes, spreadsheets. The tool matters a lot less than people think. What matters is having the right controls in place and the evidence to back them up.

Honestly? Often, yes. Platforms like Vanta are excellent at collecting evidence and monitoring your controls. What they don't do is interpret controls for your specific architecture, write your policies, fill out a 200-question security questionnaire, or sit across from your auditor and explain your access-management decisions.

Not at all, especially if you're pre-seed or early seed. A well-organized spreadsheet is genuinely better than a badly configured automation platform. We'll work with what you have, get you to audit-ready, and give you an honest recommendation on whether a platform investment makes sense at your stage.